What are “Live Apps” and are they coming to Windows Phone 8?

Now that some third-party stores are getting their marketing and display setups for the big Windows 8/Windows Phone 8 co-launch at the end of the month, some new questions are being raised.

First and foremost is what are “Live Apps”? The term comes via a display sign that asks users to swipe up, down, left or right on the screen to explore them at a Best Buy store. The questions is, we just don’t know what they are exactly.

Two possibilities naturally present themselves: this is a new, unannounced feature for Windows Phone 8 or this is just a display-unit addition for demonstrations with no serious implications for the platform. (The tipster who sent the images into Neowin does not believe it’s a demonstration tool, but rather an actual feature for what it’s worth.)

Live Apps are not to be confused with Live Tiles

If we explore the first possibility, the one that we’re sure all of you are now entertaining, what could “Live Apps” mean?

Well, they are not Live Tiles as there is another display that specifically mentions that feature, so no, they are not confused. Instead, Windows Phone 8 may have the same app swapping feature that Windows 8 has i.e. when you gesture by dragging from the left you can bring up your last app. Or it may simply be a way to see notifications/impending app changes or some new way of multi-tasking.

On the other hand, this could just be a renaming of "Metro apps" to "Live apps" (we guess "Windows 8 style apps" is just too long, eh?). Personally, we're leaning on this idea.

It’s obviously way too early to tell so we’ll just have to wait a few more weeks to find out. Have a theory? Sound off in comments.